Brief History

The following important events in the history of Maryland affected political jurisdictions, record keeping, and family movements.

1632 The King of England granted a charter for a colony where British Roman Catholics could settle in North America between Virginia and what would become Pennsylvania. The charter was granted to Cecilius Calvert, (Lord Baltimore). [1]

1632-1691, and 1715-1776 Maryland was a proprietary colony. The Calvert family proprietors (and Governor's Council) issued land grants to entice settlers to the colony before 1680. Starting in 1680 they changed to a headrights system. [2]For more details see the Maryland Land and Property page.

1634: The ships Ark and Dove brought about 200 Catholic and a few Protestant English settlers to the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, where St. Mary's County was established. [3]

1634-: Virginia leaders refused to recognize the Maryland charter and continued to sell-off Maryland land on the Delmarva Peninsula. This resulted in decades of border conflicts and uncertain land and tax claims, and attempts by Virginians to incite Indians against Maryland.[4][5]

1649 Maryland passed the Religious Toleration Act to protect Catholics and immigrating Puritans from each other and create an environment to attract more immigrants. [6] Eight years of religious wars followed anyway.

Maryland was also one of the key destinations of tens of thousands of transported British convicts. [7]Prior to 1776 three-fourths of immigrants were convicts, slaves, indentured servants, or became indentured servants to pay for their passage to America. For information about convicts and indentured servants see the works of Peter Wilson Coldham indexed in Ancestry.com, a subscription web site.

Maryland's disputed border with Pennsylvania 1682-1767.

1682 Pennsylvania began to assert ownership of what became Delaware and northern parts of Maryland. The Maryland citizens resisted including the murder of a pushy Pennsylvania tax collector. These border conflicts would not be fully resolved until the drawing of the Mason-Dixon line between 1763 and 1767. [8]

1834-1853:Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the oldest common carrier railroad in America, in 1834 reached Harper's Ferry, (West) Virginia. In 1853 it was extended to Wheeling (West) Virginia on the Ohio River. [16]

1850s: Former slaves like Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglas escaped from and through Maryland across the Mason-Dixon Line into Pennsylvania or Delaware. Quakers and others who lived in these states helped runaways on the "Underground Railroad," a series of safe-houses leading farther north into Canada. The Underground Railroad helped runaways avoid being re-enslaved as a result of Fugitive slave act. [18]

The bloodiest 24 hours in Western Hemisphere history were fought in the Civil War, 17 Sep 1862, at Antietam Creek, Maryland.

State Histories Useful to Genealogists

Good genealogists strive to understand the life and times of their ancestors. In this sense, any history is useful.

But certain kinds of state, county, and local histories, especially older histories published between 1845 and 1945, often include biographical sketches of prominent individuals. The sketches usually tend toward the lauditory, but may include some genealogical details. If these histories are indexed or alphabetical, check for an ancestor's name. Some examples for the State of Maryland are:

Harry Wright Newman, WorldCat 10552122The Flowering of the Maryland Palatinate: an Intimate and Objective History of the Province of Maryland to the Overthrow of Proprietary Rule in 1654, with Accounts of Lord Baltimore's Settlement at Avalon] (Washington, D.C.: H.W. Newman, 1961). FHL Book 975.2 H2nh. About half the book is biographical sketches.

Hester Dorsey Richardson, Side-lights on Maryland History: with Sketches of Early Maryland Families, 2 vols. (First published serially in the Baltimore Sunday Sun from May 17, 1903 to December 25, 1904; Reprint Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1913; Reprint 1967). FHL Book 975.2 H2r 1967; {FHL Film 1697311, which is digitized by BYU Family History Archives. Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 Family History Library. Unusually detailed history including lists of settlers and document transcripts mentioning citizens.

J. Thomas Scharf, WorldCat 444161History of Western Maryland: Being a History of Frederick, Montgomery, Carroll, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett Counties from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Including Biographical Sketches of Their Representative Men], 2 vols. (1882; Reprint Baltimore: Regional Pub., 1968). FHL Book 975.2 H2s 1968; Fiche 6046813. Several indexes have been published.

Sources

↑James McSherry, History of Maryland from Its First Settlement in 1634 to the Year 1848 (Baltimore: John Murphy, 1849), 22-25. Digitized in 2006 by Google Book.

↑John Leeds Bozman, History of Maryland from Its First Settlement in 1633 to the Restoration in 1660 (Baltimore: James Lucas and E.K. Deaver, 1837) FHL Book 975.2 H2bj, 2: 9-22. Digitized in 2007 by Google Book.